South Asia – April 1 || Mary Frances

I'M BACK! After a year of praying, I've finally arrived, and it feels like coming home.97º + 80º humidity = perfect water game weather. So that's what we did with our Wednesday morning! We split the kids into four big teams and played several different water relay games. It was so fun to watch the kids laugh and yell at each other,"Miem miem pieh!" (Run fast!) I was standing at the finish line with Seng, one of our translators, when she leaned over and whispered in my ear,"Mary, I don't think they know that the water they are using is coming out of the toilet buckets . . ." We looked at each other and started laughing so hard. Seng said,"Should we tell them?" I thought it would be best to tell them later, since it was already too late and everyone was soaking wet. So Seng and I watched and laughed as they all dumped toilet water on each other's heads. The stunned silence when they found out quickly turned to loud moaning. Seng and I just laughed.We played water games all morning, broke for lunch, and then resumed the teaching after. I'm leading the story team and I have two South Asia partners. One of them is named Shine. He is 17 and is my storytelling apprentice. He has an infectious smile, a great sense of humor, and a gift for teaching. The other is named Aye. She is my translator, and has a love for children and a gift with languages. She puts the same enthusiasm into her translating as I put into my storytelling.The three of us were teaching the story of Louis Zamperini to illustrate forgiveness.  I wasn't sure how it would translate, but with Shine and Aye's help, the children were riveted. They'd never heard a story like it before. Their gasps when I told them about how he punched a shark in the face were adorable, and they really grasped how God's love enables us to forgive as we have been forgiven.Mary Frances